The International Olympic Committee has announced its shocking decision to remove wrestling from the 2020 Olympic Games.

Stephen Wilson of the Associated Press is reporting that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has made the shock decision to drop wrestling from the 2020 Olympics. The IOC dropped wrestling rather than the Modern Pentathlon, the sport most had expected to be dropped.

Wrestling will be able to apply for inclusion in 2020. It will be competing against a combined bid from baseball and softball, karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu for a single opening in the 2020 games.

The modern pentathlon combines fencing, horse riding, swimming, running and shooting. It was created early in the 20th Century and intended to test the athletic skills needed by a calvary officer at that time.

"This is a process of renewing and renovating the program for the Olympics," IOC spokesman Mark Adams told the AP. "In the view of the executive board, this was the best program for the Olympic Games in 2020. It's not a case of what's wrong with wrestling, it is what's right with the 25 core sports."

This is a shocking, and potentially devastating, blow to the sport of wrestling, widely regarded as the most ancient sport of human beings and part of the Olympics, both ancient and modern since the beginning.

I just wanted to post that. It's really a shame! One of the oldest sports to be removed from the Olympics. But they keep sports like Dressage and synchronized swimming (the latter is even violating the Olympic principles of equality, as men are not allowed to participate).

Yeah I don't like this at all, I would agree wrestling doesn't really cut it as a spectator sport, but the history of the sport and its ties to the Olympics and ancient greek culture should make it undroppable.

Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. is vice president of the International Modern Pentathlon Union. (Fabrice Coffrini / AFP / Getty Images)

By Houston Mitchell

February 12, 2013, 10:44 a.m.

A lot of people are scratching their head today over the International Olympic Committee's decision to drop wrestling from the Summer Olympics, starting with the 2020 Games.

The sport many people believed should have been dropped, modern pentathlon, survived. How could this be? Well, this might be a clue:

Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., the son of the former IOC president, is vice president of the International Modern Pentathlon Union and a member of the IOC board.

We were considered weak in some of the scores in the program commission report but strong in others, Samaranch told the Associated Press. We played our cards to the best of our ability and stressed the positives. Tradition is one of our strongest assets, but we are also a multi-sport discipline that produces very complete people.

Many of the unhappy people don't even know what events make up the modern pentathlon. The sport was created because it features, get this, the skills required of a cavalry officer ... in the 19th century!

Modern pentathlon combines fencing, horse riding, swimming, running and shooting and has been a part of the Olympics since 1912.

At the London Games, athletes from 71 countries competed in wrestling. Athletes from 26 countries competed in modern pentathlon. Isn't worldwide appeal supposed to be one of the factors considered by the IOC?